She's Got a Little Bit of Raptor in Those Angel Eyes
by AmazingGraceless
Summary: Alexis Cullen was an adopted human member of the Cullens. Little did she know of her identity as VH1- the first human/raptor combination. She goes on what seems like an all-expenses paid trip to Jurassic World, and discovers nasty truths about her family.
1. Paperwork

**Form VH1**

 **InGen Co.**

Name: _Alexis Johanna Cullen_

Birthdate:07/14/01

Sex: _F_

Sponsor: _Carlisle Cullen_

Adoptive Mother: _Isabella Marie Cullen_

Adoptive Father: _Edward Masen Cullen_

Hair: _Brown_

Eyes: _Green_

Height: _5'3ft_

Weight: _140lbs_

Race: _White_

Current Residency: _Forks, Washington, U.S.A._

Current School: _Forks High_

Past Residences: _Denali property in Alaska (5 years) Concord, MA (3 years)_

Other Adoptive Relatives (list name and relation): _Renesseme Carlie Cullen (sister), Alice Cullen (aunt), Emmett Cullen (uncle), Rosalie Hale (aunt), Jasper Hale (uncle), Carlisle Cullen (grandfather), Esme Cullen (grandmother), Charles Swan (grandfather), Sue Clearwater-Swan (grandmother-in-law), Leah Clearwater (aunt-in-law), Seth Clearwater (brother-in-law), Jacob Black (family friend)_

Does VH1 play any sports? If so, please explain in the provided space: _Yes, she's doing varsity Track and Field, and is the top sprinter at her school._

How is VH1 doing in school? _She's in the top of her classes, particularly science. She's very clever and curious. It's been hard to keep her from getting into trouble with it._

Has there been any physical changes in VH1 since their last physical with their assigned pediatrician? _Her eyes have been a bit more yellow lately, and there have been slits like cats' showing in her eyes. Alexis also seems to be getting faster than she was before._

Has there been any changes in personality and/or temper since their last physical with their assigned pediatrician? _Yes, she has become much more intelligent, solving math puzzles quite fast (records have been attached). Also has become more irritable and frustrated than usual. Got into an argument with her aunt that ended in violence._

Describe VH1's Diet: _Very protein-heavy, especially with animal proteins. She has also drifted towards lysine-heavy foods. Otherwise, she eats a very balanced diet._

Notes from VH1's Sponsor: _We believe that it may be time to introduce Alexis to the park and take her to Jurassic World. She is growing quickly into her raptor side, and we don't know how much of her humanity will compromised in the process. If Dr. Wu could be so kind as to arrange a visit in the disguise of a family gathering, it would be appreciated. - Carlisle Cullen_

Signature(s) of Guardian(s): _Edward Cullen Bella Cullen_ Date: _06/12/15_

Signature of Sponsor: _Carlisle Cullen_ Date: _06/12/15_


	2. Tickets

"Did the tickets come?" Bella asked Carlisle in the dark hours after the only two sleepers in the house had gone down.

"From Dr. Wu?" Carlisle asked. "Of course they have! I've got them right here."

He pulled an envelope from his desk and began to pull out a plethora of tickets with the silver seal of Jurassic World on them. He set them down on the rowan desk and Bella just stared down at them for a moment.

"Edward doesn't like this," she admitted when she looked back up at Carlisle. "He doesn't think she's ready for this yet. But when she got in a fight with Alice last week, he at least became a little more inclined to the idea. Like it or not, her raptor is starting to emerge. It's surprising that she hasn't noticed it yet."

He rubbed his temples, although he hadn't had a real sinus headache in years. "No one, not even InGen knew the consequences of messing around with the DNA like this. No one knew when it would happen, or even how the DNA would manifest itself. We're dealing with a modified version of the velociraptors millions and millions of years ago, albeit with a little frog DNA and who knows what else."

Bella nodded, hanging onto every word with black eyes. "I understand, Carlisle."

"No, I don't think you do," he snapped harshly as he rose from his desk. "I don't think any of us really do. Especially not the men and women running that park! They're playing with forces that should've been left to die."

"Why did you get involved with John Hammond and the old park, then?" Bella asked, confused and a little frightened by Carlisle's outburst. "Why did you become an investor in InGen? Why did you choose to sponsor this project?"

Carlisle paced the length of the room, and turned back to face Bella with a troubled face. "We all have flaws, Bella, you know this. My bad habit, which is putting it lightly, I suppose, is playing God. Even when I wanted to get into the medical arts, I was interested in deciding who would live or die. I wasn't prepared for the responsibility. I still have to remind myself that I'm not God, I'm not an angel, and that I'm meddling in affairs I shouldn't always be involved in. Yet I still have to fully learn it, and I haven't learned my lesson. I don't think I ever will. Do you understand?"

Bella bit her lip, but nodded, pretending that she did.

"I'm just starting to feel like Edward's forgetting what we agreed to with InGen years ago," Bella admitted quietly. "We're only here to raise her, and once it comes time, she'll be in the park staff in the ACU or as a raptor trainer."

"It's not his fault he's forgotten," Carlisle said, eying Bella very seriously. "There was always one problem to InGen's plan. They forgot that the parents that would adopt them would love them as they would their own child. They forgot the force of such love. That would cause any father to forget any agreement that would tear away all choices from their child."

Bella understood that better, and it showed on her face.

"But still, we're ready to bring her to the park to begin the check-ins and such," Carlisle finally finished. "I plan on telling her tomorrow. Would you mind?"

"No, please do," Bella said, relieved. "She'll be excited-she's always wanted to go to Jurassic World."

Carlisle's smile did not quite reach his eyes.

* * *

Lex sat up in bed in a cold sweat, propped up on her elbows. She got up to go use the bathroom she shared with her sister, Nessie, and splashed some water on her face. She froze when she looked up and saw a slit for a pupil and a more yellow coloring to her eyes, but when she looked again, it was gone.

She sighed. This was the third night in a row that she'd had her nightmare. She'd been in some jungle, velociraptors at her side. They were right in front of a monstrous dinosaur that was more than a T-Rex, more than any dinosaur that had ever actually existed. The worst part? She could talk to that monster and understand it as humans shouted all around her. Then came the end:

 _"Shoot her!"_

Lex jumped, and looked behind her. Nothing was there, but she could've sworn that she'd heard the phrase again that had ended all of her nightmares. She'd had it before, but this week, it had been vengefully present every night.

Tired eyes that almost looked like the rest of the household's stared back at her as she gripped the marble countertops. She'd seen flashes of a raptor's eyes in the mirror for a month now, and she had two theories as to why: firstly, and most likely, she was going insane and was seeing things. Probably would be talking to herself within a month or two. And, least likely, but the only other theory she had it was actually happening. Why, though, had Lex at a loss.

She shrugged, and walked out of the bathroom and lay back down. She stared up at the ceiling and waited for answers to reveal themselves.


	3. Labs

"Morning Carlisle!" Lex cried as she bounced into the expensive kitchen next to her adoptive grandfather and wrapped her arms around her with impressive speed. "How are you?"

"I'm fine, Lexie, how are you?" Carlisle asked.

"Fine," she lied, her dreams of raptors still prominent in her mind. "I'm so glad that winter break came around. What are we going to do this year?"

Bella glanced at Carlisle, and she then pulled the envelope out of the drawer. "I think you'll like this year. We're going south, way south."

"Isle Esme?" Lex guessed, remembering hearing about her vampiric family's private island.

"It is an island, but not that one," Bella said.

"What are you talking about?" Lex asked nervously.

Bella slid the envelope across the marble countertop. "Open it."

Lex picked up the envelope, fumbled with the top, and pulled out the tickets. She almost dropped them in surprise. She put them hastily back on the counter and gave a shriek of excitement and she hugged her grandfather. She then turned and hugged Bella.

"Thank you! Thank you!" She squealed. "When are we going?"

"Our plane takes off tomorrow," Bella said with an amused smile on her face. "Pack your bags. The whole family's going. Even Charlie, Leah, Jacob. All of us."

Lex nodded, almost in tears from joy. "Thank you so much!"

"You're welcome," Carlisle said.

* * *

The whole family was in the jet, wearing sunglasses and a lot of clothing to hide their sparkles as much as possible. It was weird, seeing winter clothes in Costa Rica, but it was ignored. Weirder things had been seen at the park.

The Cullens took a private ferry to the park and stayed inside the cabin while Lex roamed the deck, watching the water and all of that. She couldn't wait to see dinosaurs. Something about them had felt right to her for all of her life, and she was absolutely enamored with them.

The private ferry landed a ways away from the normal landing dock. Waiting at the dock was a car big enough for all of the Cullens with a Jurassic World stamp on the sides and tinted windows. As soon as they were in, several of the vampires shed their clothing.

"Phew, it's hot in Costa Rica," Rosalie complained.

"Where are we going?" Nessie asked.

"Our special suite," Esme said.

"Thank you so much!" Lex squealed.

"It was no problem, sweetheart," Esme said.

"We spared no expense," Carlisle assured her.

The suite was multiple rooms connected with cutesy dinosaur tracks around the wall and a safari theme to the decor. Lex raced to the top bunk, leaving Nessie for the bottom. She kicked her flip-flops off from the top as the rest of the family got over their jet-lag. She was exited and ready to burst with energy from being cooped up so long, but for the sake of them, she stayed in the room and watched the TV at a low volume, detailing all the things that you could do at Jurassic World for the guests.

Lex grabbed her private notebook out of her carry-on backpack and began scribbling them down and grabbed a map. She was going to figure out how to hit the most rides over winter break. Lost in another world of math and numbers, she did not notice when Bella had groaned for they'd called the room.

"Hello?" Bella moaned.

"Ms. Cullen, we need to see you in the labs in one hour. Do you know how to get there?" The woman on the other end asked.

"Carlisle does," Bella replied with a lazy swat of the hand.

"Oh, yes, I'd forgotten," the woman said, sounding surprised. "One hour. Bring VH1 with you."

"I will," Bella promised, and after she wrote down the codes for various checkpoints, the woman hung up. Bella then clapped sharply, bringing Alexis out of her math-induced stupor and everyone else out of bed.

"We've just gotten an opportunity to access behind-the-scenes due to Carlisle's quite large stock in InGen, so let's hop to it! Change your clothes, get ready to see things that the public doesn't normally see!" Bella ordered.

Lex put her notebook in her backpack, and rummaged through her dresser for a sleeveless striped top and cargo pants and a fresh pair of socks. She ran a brush through her feathery brown hair, and tied it into a loose bun at the nape of her neck. She changed her socks and re-laced her battered navy converse.

As the other members continued to get ready, Lex placed on her lucky pink baseball hat. It had been through plenty of incidents involving mud, a lake, and other certain things, but whenever she had it, she would get out of just about any situation.

Once everyone had been rounded up, they found a Land Cruiser with the Jurassic World logo on it at the front door. The family piled in the car, with Lex, Nessie, and Jacob sitting on the floor.

The Land Cruiser pulled up to HQ on the site, and then let the clan out. They were immediately escorted into the labs, where an Asian man in a white coat was working on some paperwork for an egg behind the glass.

"Dr. Wu, your guests are here," one of the escorts said.

The man turned around, eyes bright. "Ah, Dr. Cullen. It's so good to see you after all these years, just the same as always. You must tell me how you look so young."

Carlisle chuckled uneasily.

Dr. Wu's eyes flicked to Lex, whose eyes had turned raptor-like in her excitement. "And who is this special young lady?"

"I'm Lex," she replied, sticking her hand out for a handshake. "How are you, sir?"

"I'm fine, thank you," Dr. Wu replied with a smile as he obliged the girl. "We have a lot to talk about, Dr. Cullen. But come along. Welcome to Jurassic World!"


	4. Project VH

Lex was entranced as she followed the doctor around the labs, until they were in an office. It was sleek and white, like the rest of the complex, but was absolutely private.

"We're glad to see you here, Alexis," Dr. Wu said. "We've been expecting you for quite some time."

"I don't follow," Lex said, raising an eyebrow.

"You will, you will," he said with a pat on the head. "We'll be taking you out to Paddock 7 shortly. They've been moving a new asset out to the Verizon Wireless-sponsored paddock, and I've got to be there soon to make sure that they don't screw it up. But anyway, how are all of you?

A chorus of "fine" erupted all throughout the tiny office.

"Good," Dr. Wu said. "I've heard from Carlisle that many of you have been doing well on school."

"That's mostly Lex," Nessie informed him as she put a hand on Lex's shoulders. "The genius of the family, this one."

Lex felt a little uncomfortable, being the center of this stranger's attention and squirmed a little.

"Really?" He was intrigued. "Any particular areas?"

"Overall, she's the most clever girl at Forks High," Bella bragged. "But she's really good at math and science."

"Yeah, I love Bio," Lex said eagerly, instantly relaxing at the familiar topic. "It all makes sense to me, how animals work and such, and DNA is so fascinating."

"Couldn't agree more, Miss Cullen," Dr. Wu said. "You see, we're looking at a position for you at Jurassic World once you become of age."

"Really?" Lex bounced on the balls on her feet excitedly.

"Yes, Carlisle recommended you, and we're finding that you appear to be just what we're looking for," Dr. Wu said.

"Are you sure it's wise to tell her about the job now?" Carlisle asked.

"Her physicals are just as you said, Carlisle," Wu replied. "We can't wait any longer."

Lex sobered, suddenly uneasy by that comment. "What are you talking about?"

"What do you mean?" Wu asked.

"I get the feeling that you aren't talking about a job offer. Something's wrong," she explains. "While it's perfectly feasible that a dinosaur park would access to employees' physical, since they ought to be good at running from t-rex and the like, saying that you can't wait is a little unnerving. Especially when it involves a sixteen-year-old girl."

Dr. Wu glanced nervously at Carlisle. "You're right, young lady, but I-" he looked down at his watch. "And I've got to get down to the Verizon Wireless Paddock. Ms. Dearing will personally drive you to Paddock 7."

A woman in all white with perfectly trimmed red hair approached the office.

"Are you the Cullens?" She asked. After several nods, she shook Carlisle's hand. "Dr. Cullen, you have been a wonderful resource for the park. We hope that you will continue to donate towards the finances of the park."

"It all depends on this visit," Carlisle said honestly.

Ms. Dearing frowned, but then scanned over the faces of the Cullens. "Which one of you is Alexis Cullen?"

Lex, who was right in front of her, raised her hand slowly.

"Ah, you and Dr. Cullen need to come with me. The rest of you will be directed into the park where they will join you shortly," Ms. Dearing announced.

"Wait a minute!" Charlie called out. "Why do you need her? She's just a girl. Why can't the rest of us come?"

"That's classified, Chief Swan," Ms. Dearing said patiently. "All is fine, I assure you. You'll see her after about a half hour at most. Now if you'll follow Ben to the plaza, that would be appreciated."

Grudgingly, the Cullens and Swans filed out, following the assistant that looked a little traumatized by the beauty of the visitors. Only Lex and Carlisle were left behind.

Ms. Dearing then ushered them into her corporate-sponsored car as it began speeding through the jungle. In the backseat, where Carlisle and Lex were sitting, it was quiet. Lex held her cap in her hands, wondering about where she was going. Carlisle wrung his hands and wondered what he'd gotten himself into by sponsoring InGen when it first popped up on a whim of Alice's years ago.

Finally, the car stopped in front of a heavily-guarded fence with bridges going overhead.

"Charlie! None of that shit!" Lex heard a man's voice shout. As they approached, they saw a sandy-haired man barely dive under the closing gate in time. After saying something to a shaken employee, he got to his feet and walked up to a supervisor.

"That was amazing, Grady," the man said. "Imagine if the military had gotten their hands on that! The war against ISIS would be over in no time!"

The sandy-haired man listened uneasily, but then his eyes locked on Lex.

"What's a kid doing here?" Grady demanded. "Claire, you wanna explain this?"

"It's Dearing, Mr. Grady," Dearing said as she shifted uncomfortably. "This is Dr. Carlisle Cullen, one of the first founders of Jurassic Park and Jurassic World."

"How's he been alive that long?" Grady asked, looking at Carlisle's ageless face.

"My family's known forouthful," Carlisle said dismissively.

"And he's wearing body glitter!" Grady added, frowning. "Still doesn't answer the question of what the kid is doing here!"

Lex folded her arms over her chest defensively. What's going on? It's as if he wasn't expecting us- what's going on?

"She is Dr. Cullen's adoptive granddaughter," Dearing said with a glance at Lex. "And she's the first of Project VH, VH1, to come to the park."

Project VH? Lex frowned.

On the other hand, Grady's eyes bulged. "I thought Project VH was only a rumor! You mean that was actually legit?"

"Yes," Dearing said. "We're initiating the first stage."

"Look at her, Claire, she doesn't even know what you're talking about," Grady pointed out.

"Well, get on with it, and she will!" Dearing snapped.

"Can it go on the record that I think this is a very bad idea?" Grady complained.

The woman rolled her eyes, and he sighed and looked over to Lex.

"Look, I have the feeling you have no idea what's going on, and I think they're going to throw you into this. If things go wrong, run," he ordered.

Lex nodded, and she followed the man as Dearing and Carlisle climbed to the overhead walk. Grady stood in the safe area where he'd fled to earlier. Finally, Lex had a better look at the dinosaurs.

 _Velociraptors!_ She realized with a jolt. She turned to look at Grady.

"Is this some kind of human sacrifice thing?" She asked, panicking.

"As long as you follow my directions, no," Grady said with a glare at the overhead. "First, calm down. Like dogs, raptors can smell fear. Second, I want you to walk into the paddock as calmly as you can."

Lex took a deep breath, and as the gate opened, she slowly approached the four raptors inside.

"Hello?" She called.

" _Who's the human_?" She heard a feminine voice ask.

" _Some idiot like the one that fell in,"_ another said.

"Claire, look at them, they're surrounding her," Grady called.

"Please don't hurt me," Lex said. Or at least, that's what she thought she'd said. But what came out sounded like a series of chirps and growls.

" _Why not?"_ One asked.

Lex's eyes widened as she came to a realization. " _I'm one of you."_

Then she turned and ran, because things had gone horribly wrong. She was part raptor. She then continued to run as fast as she could, past Mr. Grady, past any of the security guards, past the shouts for her to come back as she ran into the jungle.


	5. Indominus

"What do you mean, she's _missing_?" Bella's frantic voice shrieked a little too loudly for Claire Dearing's pleasure on the cellphone.

"Ms. Cullen, let me assure you that we are doing everything in our power to retrieve your child," she said, only to be interrupted by a chirp on her phone. She sighed and put the mother on speakerphone while she looked at her screen. She had that meeting with Owen to check out the Indominus in five minutes.

"Ms. Cullen, I promise, we are doing everything we can," Claire said. "In fact, I have a lead I need to check in with right now. I'll inform you personally when it has been confirmed."

She hung up before she could receive any more flack. She pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. Claire hated that she had to lie, but she had important things to deal with. All the carnivores were put in places where they'd be harmless, and if the girl really was part-raptor, she'd be fine. The girl had certainly ran like one.

After checking through her bag, she got into her car and began to drive down to Owen's- Mr. Grady's, she corrected herself hastily- bungalow.

* * *

Edward was having a hell of a time getting Bella to calm down. Admittedly, he'd be the one raging if the love of his life wasn't panicking. _How dare they lose his child! Sure, they might have designed her, but she was their child legally._

Bella kept sobbing uncontrollably while Charlie and Edward tried to comfort her. Carlisle and Dr. Wu were fighting it out in the labs, so they had no idea what to do at this point.

* * *

Lex hopped the fence into the main outside dining area, and blended in well with the scenery. She didn't want to face her parents yet. How come they never told her that she was part raptor? She felt betrayed. They knew. That's why she saw the raptor eyes in the mirror. The genetics were finally breaking through.

She could see much sharper now, even beyond the sunglasses she'd donned after her jungle run to hide her eyes. She could hear and smell more, and it was overwhelming. Still, she tried to block it out as she wriggled through the crowds in attempt to try and lose any sort of trail. She then stopped at one of the cafés and pulled out her phone and dialed her mom.

"Lex?" Bella answered immediately.

"I'm in the park," Lex said quickly. "I'm by the Panera's. Look, I'm gonna go on some rides, okay?"

"Don't you dare hang up, you had us worr-"

Lex for once disobeyed. She hung up, and shoved her phone in the bottom of her backpack. She then pulled out her VIP pass lanyard, and began for the northern track.

* * *

"Well, at least we can tell the park to stop searching for her," Bella said to Edward after Lex had hung up on her. "She must be really mad at us."

"Let her have her fun," Edward said soothingly. "We should never have kept the truth from her, but InGen brainwashed us into thinking that it's somehow best for her to be oblivious."

"I know, I know," Bella said sobbingly.

"It's going to be alright," Charlie said, as he held his long-grown up daughter. "She'll come back and everything will be fine."

Rosalie pursed her lips over her drink from Margaritaville as they talked and wept and wondered what had become of their youngest member. She always had been Lex's favorite aunt, and she wasn't afraid to use it to her advantage now. She pulled out her state-of-art cellphone.

She frowned as she noticed that Lex wasn't picking up. She let out a little growl when it went to voicemail.

"Listen, Lexi," she said, using her personal nickname for her. "Your mom's worried sick. I'm asking that you come back now. I'll even give you that silk dress in my closet you wanted to wear to the prom if you'll just get your tail over there. Got it? Good."

"Hey, you might want to get off your phone," Leah said to her sister-in-law, who she had formed a grudging alliance with. "I can smell it. Something's happening."

All the Cullen's took a sniff, and they could, in fact, smell the blood of some strange creator they'd never smelled before. Jacob held Nessie close, protectively.

"Something's loose," Leah announced, staring off into the distance in horror.

* * *

Lex was in line for the gyrosphere ride, and had finally gotten in when two uber-VIP boys forced their way to the front of the line.

"Boys, there's only one more ball, and this young lady's about to take it out," the attendant insisted.

"Hey, there's room for two more, right?" The older boy asked. Lex looked up at him. He was the cute guy that had been ogling a lot of girls at the park. She'd thought that he might've taken a look or two at her.

"Sure," she said airily. "Hop on in."

She scooted over so the two brothers could get in the gyrosphere, and they started rolling around the herbivores.

"So, what's your name?" The older boy asked.

"Lex," she said as she tapped a control to a Jimmy Fallon video. "What's yours?"

"Zach," the older boy said.

"Gray," the younger one said out of nowhere. "Why are you wearing sunglasses and a hat? It's not that bright out."

"I just have light-sensitive eyes, that's all," Lex replied. "I'm from Forks, Washington, the rainiest place in the U.S., so I'm not used to a lot of light."

"Oh, we're from Minnesota," Gray said.

"Yeah, it snows a lot there," Zach added.

"I've heard," she said politely, and the gyrosphere was quiet.

"Attention! All rides need to report back."

Gray sighed and look back.

"Come on, we can stay out a few more minutes," Zach said. "We're VIPs."

"And we shouldn't disobey orders when we're in a dinosaur park," Lex pointed out.

"Come on, I just want my little brother to have the full experience of Jurassic World before he has to go home," Zach said. Gray looked at him pleadingly, eyes begging him to not tell that their parents were getting divorced.

"Fine," Lex said. "As long as we don't get killed."

They kept rolling until there was a hole in the fence.

"What caused that?" Lex asked.

"Only one way to find out," Zach said with a shrug, and he rolled the gyrosphere down into the canopy. "See? I got you up close with four dinosaur-uses."

"One, they're ankylosaurus," Gray said. "Two, we're not supposed to be here, and three, there's five dinosaurs."

"Aren't you supposed to be some kind of genius? There's only four," Zach said.

"No, there's one, two, three, four-"

"Five," Lex said in a panicked voice, seeing the reflection of the carnivore. "And we need to-"

The dinosaur stepped over the ball and started attacking an ankylosaurus. As the dinosaurs battled, Zach's phone started going off. He tried to reach it, but the ankylosaurus then cracked the gyrosphere. As he tried to pick it up, the dinosaur grabbed the ball, and dove its claw right into it.

Lex, Zach, and Gray screamed as the glass behind them shattered, and Lex unstrapped herself. She landed on the ground harmlessly, and she ducked as the Indominus picked up the ball again. The boys tumbled down beside her, and they all began to run.


	6. Confessions

Lex took care not to run too fast, for fear of revealing her raptor heritage. She knew she had to help them survive, though, so she grabbed their hands and dragged them along, only to halt sharply at the edge of a waterfall. She looked back. The Indominus was gaining on them.

"We need to jump," Zach said, looking behind him, then at Gray. "Ready? 1... 2-"

"Three!" Lex screamed as they all jumped. She sank beneath the water and found herself clawing towards the surface. Her foot was caught in some sort of algae. She then felt something pulling at the back of her t-shirt. She fought and kicked and struggled, but was pulled free at the expense of her sneaker.

She gasped for air as Zach pulled her onto the shore.

"My hat!" She cried, and she quickly pulled at the wet pink fabric. She looked over to Zach and Gray.

"Thanks," she said as she wrung out her cap and placed it on top of her backpack. She took a deep breath and dived back in to retrieve her shoe. Unfortunately, she couldn't locate her sunglasses, so she returned to the surface and crawled back to where her backpack was.

She had just finished lacing up her shoes when Gray spoke.

"Why do you have velociraptor eyes?"

Zach did a double-take, grabbed Gray, and backed away.

"What are you?" He demanded.

"I'm a human being!" Lex snapped, then she deflated. "Mostly. I didn't know till today."

"Know what?" Zach asked, still on guard but not so scared.

"That I have raptor genes in me," Lex finished as she put her cap on.

"Raptor?"

"I just seem to have weird eyes and a nice brilliant mind," Lex elaborated. "And I can talk to raptors."

"You're crazy," Zach said.

"No," Gray said out of nowhere. "It makes sense. She ran really fast, Zach. The eyes are right. I think she's telling the truth."

"I don't want to hurt anybody, I promise," she said. "Please, we need to stick together to survive. I'm just as scared as you."

It was as soon as she said it that she realized it was true.

Zach's face softened and he let Gray go.

"Alright. I guess we'd better figure out where we're supposed to go," Zach said, studying Lex for a moment.

"I think I've got a map," Lex said as she dug into her backpack. Sure enough, a soaked brochure map was in there, but it was too wet to be of any use. She groaned and put it back in the pouch.

"Alright then, where are we closest to?" she asked.

"The gyrosphere attraction and the old park," Gray said dutifully.

"The old park?" Lex asked in surprise. "We can spend the night in there. I don't think we'll be going home tonight."

"Aunt Claire's going to be pi- I mean, really, really mad," Zach said, censoring at the last second.

"And my mom's going to be madder than she already is," Lex replied evenly as she suddenly remembered her phone. It was dead, however, but she knew that she could perhaps get some energy to recharge it at the old park.

"What do you think that thing was?" Zach asked as they started hiking.

"I don't know," Lex and Gray chorused.

* * *

Back at the plaza, there was already commotion from people beginning to evacuate.

"Something got loose by the gyrospheres," Esme reported, looking at her phone for news and updates.

"What?" Bella asked.

"I don't know, they're not saying," Esme admitted.

"That means that InGen is hiding something," Edward added, putting his arm around Bella. "Rosalie, have you been able to find Alexis?"

"She's not picking up her phone!" Rosalie cried angrily. "Alice could be useful and-"

"Well I can't see her!" Alice cried testily. "You know I can't! She's not completely human, so I can't see her future!"

"Has anyone tried to find her phone through some tracking app?" Charlie asked.

The whole family froze.

"No," Emmett admitted.

"I think I can get that to happen," Carlisle said, and he pulled out his phone.

Leah and Jacob both sniffed for a moment and both flinched sharply.

"I can smell whatever they released," Leah said. "It's unnatural."

"All of this is unnatural," Alice reminded them, looking increasingly uncomfortable.

"What's wrong?" Jasper asked, picking up on his sweetheart's distress.

"I see people running, and getting killed-by what, I can't tell. People are going to die today," Alice confessed in a whisper, trying to keep the people around them from panicking.

"We have to try to stop it," Edward said, glancing towards Carlisle.

"I just want to see where our daughter is," Bella said fiercely. "I don't care about the others, our responsibility is to look out for each other. We need to find Alexis and get out of here."

"Wait a minute!" Charlie cried angrily, looking a little confused. "Lex isn't completely human? What the hell is going on? What aren't you telling me, Bells?"

Bella softened at her father's nickname. "Alexis is part velociraptor. Carlisle funded the project for InGen. She was the first one."

Charlie looked at his daughter and in-laws, horrified at these acts.

"You genetically modified your own daughter?"

"She wasn't ours until after the genes were manipulated," Bella confessed.

"Whose was she?" Charlie demanded.

"It doesn't matter," Esme said, jumping to her daughter-in-law's defense. "She's one of us now."

"I was asking Isabella, not you," Charlie snapped. "Tell me Bells, who were the real parents?"

"I don't know who the father is," Bella admitted. "But the mother. . . She was looking for money, she needed help. I don't remember her name, but she was some scared high school student who'd gotten pregnant at prom."

"You took a teen mother's daughter?!" Charlie was appalled. "What if Carlisle had done the same to Nessie?"

"That's different," Bella snapped. "I wanted her, this mother didn't. She wanted dreams and life beyond being a young mother, so we were doing her a favor."

"Are you so sure?" Charlie asked. "I know I wasn't that involved in your life for a long time, and I had career drives, but I wanted you. I wanted you badly. This mother regrets it, I'm sure. Did she even get to name her own child?"

Bella held her breath, about to cry. Except vampires couldn't cry.

"No. She filled out the certificate, but we changed it."

"She should know her real name," Charlie said. "Do you know it?"

"Delilah. Her name was Delilah Schuyler Johnson." Her whisper was filled with the tears she could not cry. They say the truth will set you free, but Bella didn't feel any lighter. In fact, she felt weighed down by the truth and the sadness. What had she done?

"I found Lex," Carlisle said quietly. Every head turned towards him. "You're not going to like it, though."

"Where is she?" It was during times like this that Bella had forgotten that her heart didn't beat anymore. Her mind created the illusion that her heart was beating against her chest, even though she knew her heart had been dead for fourteen years.

"Before her phone died, she was near the gyrospheres," Carlisle said.

"No," Bella whispered.

"There's more," Carlisle added grimly. "She was outside of the attraction. If I remember the map of the island correctly, she was at the top of a waterfall."

"We've gotta find her!" Bella cried, standing up, but Rosalie and Alice pushed her down.

"Bella, we don't know where she is now," Carlisle told her. "This is out of my hands."


	7. Hike to the Old Park

"So your grandfather sponsored both parks?" Gray asked as they continued to hike through the jungle.

"Yeah," Lex answered. "He was a friend of John Hammond's."

"Must be pretty old," Zach commented.

"Doesn't look it," Lex admitted. "A lot of plastic surgery. Get this, they even manipulated their skin to make it sparkle in the light."

"They sparkle?" the boys chorused.

Lex nodded and smirked.

"So basically, you're the child of new money," Zach said.

"Yep," Lex confirmed. "They love to spend big. The best of everything."

"Sounds nice," Zach commented. "Must get nice musical equipment."

"Yeah, but my parents prefer classical music and I suck at it," Lex said. "I like listening to music, though."

"Really?" Zach couldn't help but smile. "So do I."

"What bands are you into?" Lex asked.

"Some 80's stuff, y'know?" he replied.

"So do I!" Lex laughed. "My dad hates it, thinks the decade was bad for music, but that should tell you how uptight he is."

"Maybe when we get back to the hotel, we could exchange playlists?"

Lex smiled. "That would be nice. But first, we need to find that old park so we have some place to rest that's a little safer."

"Yeah," Zach agreed, looking a little disappointed. He looked over to Gray.

"How are you, little brother?"

"I'm fine," Gray said with a quiet determination.

"Need to stop?" Lex asked.

"I'm fine."

Lex threw her hands up. "I was just asking."

They continued to walk along a river, like Charlie had taught Lex in a survival situation.

"So, do either of you like school?" Lex asked in attempt to distract herself from the blazing heat and humidity.

"I do," Gray said. "He doesn't. He likes acting cool so girls like him."

"Oh really?" Lex arched an eyebrow and smirked. "Well, you like school. Do you have a favorite subject?"

"Science," Gray answered.

"Really? I like science too," Lex replied. "Any particular part of science you like?"

"Dinosaurs," the brothers chorused. Lex smiled at that.

"He'll talk your ear off for hours about dinosaurs," Zach added.

"Jurassic World must be a dream come true," Lex said.

Gray nodded.

"I always liked dinosaurs too," she admitted.

"Until you became one?" Gray asked.

"Um, yeah," Lex replied, looking down at her shoes. "Not that I'm proud of that."

"Sorry," Gray said quickly, looking down at his own shoes.

"It's alright," Lex said. "I'm still getting used to that."

"Um, come on, I think I see a building that way," Zach interrupted.

* * *

Claire Dearing was already worried and panicking. She did not want to be talking to the Cullens. While Carlisle Cullen might've been a big donor to their projects-including Project VH, his daughter-in-law was a pain in the skirt. Reluctantly, she pulled out her cell phone, praying for the bad reception to stay so she could focus on the missing asset.

"Hello, this is Claire Dearing, manager of Jurassic World, how can I help you?" she asked in her clear receptionist voice. She was disappointed to hear the crystal-clear reply.

"Hello, this is Bella Cullen," a panicked voice responded.

"Ah yes," Claire said, ignoring the look Owen-Mr. Grady- was throwing her for handling other affairs during the emergency. "How can I help you, Ms. Cullen?"

"My daughter-"

"Didn't you call me twenty minutes ago to tell me that you located your daughter?" Claire interrupted, not able to hold her tongue. She couldn't ignore how impressed Owen- Mr. Grady, remember to be professional!- looked.

"Well, yes, but it turns out that she was at the gyrosphere exhibit, and our phone tracker reads that she was outside of the exhibit when the evacuation occurred!"

Claire's stomach dropped. Her nephews were out there. She had to get out there. She didn't even care about the VH project. She just wanted her nephew to be okay.

"I'm on my way out there, Ms. Cullen. Goodbye."

She hung up and turned to Owen. "Take me out there."

* * *

Rosalie twirled her finger in her margarita, acting nonchalant despite her inner worries inside. Emmett smiled somewhat sadly at her, and she smiled back. She couldn't help but think that the last time they'd seen Lexi, they'd sent her off to contend with raptors. Her last words had been angry ones on the phone.

It took everything Rosalie had to keep herself from breaking down and crying.

"We'll find her, Bella," Edward was whispering softly. "We'll find her."

"But what if something else does?" Bella whimpered.

"She's part raptor, she'll be able to outrun anything," Edward promised.

"Are you sure?" Rosalie hated to be such a bitch, but she hated it when Edward sounded that smug about anything. "We don't know what's out there."

"Nothing's as fast or strong as a vampire, Rose," Esme said quietly. "Velociraptors can run almost as fast, so Lex will be-"

Rosalie raised her eyebrows. "Almost as fast? They're just as fast, and just as strong in their jaws! Besides, have Dr. Grant's reports told you nothing? They're wicked smart, smarter than even us! They might be able to figure out a way to kill Alexis if they're what's loose."

"I doubt it's a velociraptor," Nessie piped up. "They'd tell us-"

"That one of the most dangerous natural dinosaurs known to man," Rosalie snapped. "They don't even put them on display, they're so dangerous! The park would close forever if the raptors got loose."

"What's your problem?" Jacob snarled, putting his arm around his imprintee protectively. "Why do you have to be so negative? Do you want Lex to die?"

"No!" Rosalie snapped as she stood up. Emmett threw his hands up and backed away. "I just know that we can't be optimistic like we've been since the Volturi! We have to accept that things might go horribly wrong! Hell, it probably will go wrong! And why, again? Because Carlisle couldn't leave the damn dinosaurs alone!"

Rosalie then stormed away, with Esme running after her.

Emmett sat down, looking uncomfortable with the situation.

"Don't look at me, Jake," he said to the still-snarling werewolf.

* * *

Lex stopped while Gray ducked behind a tree again. She sat down, dipping her feet into the river after examining it closely. She didn't see any signs of jurassic fish, so she took a risk. Everything would be different when she came home. Her raptor eyes, running speeds, and her new lysine-dependency. Besides, with the slits for eyes, the world seemed a little dimmer. She knew it was so she could see in the dark, but still. . .

"You okay?"

Lex jumped when she saw Zach sitting next to her.

"Oh, I'm fine, thanks," she said, looking back at the river.

"You sure? Because staring at something quietly means something wrong with a lot of people," he pointed out.

"Well, something's bound to be wrong when you find out you've got Dino DNA," Lex said with a shrug. "Everything's changed."

"So your eyes look different, big deal," Zach said with a shrug. "In the scheme of things, that's not too bad. Besides, even if there's a few other things, you seem pretty normal. Not like some little evil hybrid, if that's what you're afraid of."

"You think I'm normal?" Lex asked. "I'm the classroom freak, the nerd. I guess a freak can only get more freaky."

"So you're a nerd?" Zach shrugged again. "Gray's a nerd. That's pretty normal. You're not that different, Lex. You're pretty normal."

"Normal," she repeated.

"And neither of us are gonna leave you behind," he promised. "Okay."

"Okay."

Both of them stood to face Gray.

"Come on, let's keep going."


	8. Jane

They could see the overgrown building up on a hill not too far away. Lex sighed in relief. She didn't want to be stuck in the jungle on a freaking dinosaur island. That was when she could see it. Something out of the corner of her eyes, and she could hear something that was just off.

"Why did you stop?" Gray asked.

"Just listen," Lex said. She could hear the rustling coming closer, and closer. . . Her eyes flashed open. "We need to run!"

She took Zach and Gray's hands and ran. Her heart beat quickly against her chest to the rhythm of her pounding feet. She could feel them being slightly dragged due to her speed, but all she could think of was that there was definitely some sort of dinosaur following them.

She barely realized that both boys had let go and she stopped, her feet sliding in the mud a few inches. She turned around to see the boys stopping in their tracks.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"There's nothing there," Gray said after a long silence.

"But I heard-"

"Lex, it was just a bird or something," Zach said, calmly looking around. "There aren't any dinosaurs where there isn't a fence."

"What about the-" she paused, confused.

"It wasn't there," Zach said calmly. "You just heard something."

She frowned. What did she hear then? Was it just something harmless? Why was she acting so skittish.

"Sorry," she said, trying to cover up the confusion and frustration. She looked to the steps of the old park's main building. "Come on, let's get inside for the night."

They nodded and followed her inside, although she still had a feeling that they were being followed by something. They walked inside and she sat down on the remains of the steps. She unslung her backpack and began going through the supplies she'd brought. Gray sat down beside her as Zach looked around the main entry room.

"Could you count these up for me?" she asked.

He nodded and started picking up the baggies of snacks that Lex had packed before she'd left the private bungalow they'd been staying in. Most of them had been baggies with types of lunchmeat practically stacked in it.

"Why all the meat?" Gray asked.

"I've been having cravings lately, okay?" Lex said, her cheeks turning bright red in embarrassment.

"Is it part of the velociraptor instincts?" Gray asked.

"I guess so," Lex said, suddenly realizing that he was right. "But you can have some. I swear, all of it should be fine."

Gray took a baggie with stride, and started munching somewhat happily.

"Zach?" Lex called, not able to see him anymore.

A scream was her prompt reply.

She jumped to her feet. "Gray, stay here!"

She then ran to see Zach against the wall and on the floor, curled up into a ball and moaning. An eerily doll-like blonde in a black cloak was walked calmly towards him in a dreamlike fashion. At the sound of Lex entering the room, she looked over to her, revealing blood-red eyes.

"Jane," Lex said, remembering the stories Bella and Nessie had told her. A short girl, quite beautiful, and could cause tremendous pain onto one person.

"You guessed correct, human," Jane said in a calm voice with a slight Italian accent. She looked Lex up and down. "I knew you would come running to aid this boy."

"Let him go. Why are you even here?" Lex demanded, trying to keep the fear from showing.

"I am not here for him, although I will have to tie up his loose end, as well as the brother's, in one way or another," Jane replied evenly as she turned and walked up to Lex. "I am here for you, the Cullens' second offense of our greatest law. Telling the humans about our world."

"I-I-" Lex swallowed. "I'm not completely human."

Jane laughed. "Oh, Aro figured that much out when he discovered how much mail was being sent to Costa Rica. Besides, a few our guard has been quite interested in this project, especially in determining if Hammond's experiments were a danger to us."

"Then I don't count in being told," Lex insisted.

"My dear, you are human enough in the ways that count," Jane said. "I've been following you, and I know you identify with the human part of you more."

"Of course I do," Lex said, her now-sharp peripheral vision picking up on Zach trying to crawl out of the way to run with Gray. "I don't want to be a monster."

"How funny, when that might be your only option now," Jane said. "I have an option for all three of you, an important decision- STAY HERE, HUMAN!"

Her eyes darted to Zach and he crumpled again and screamed. Gray ran in the room over to his brother.

"Excellent," Jane hissed. "You may all make the choice."

"W-What choice?" Gray asked. "What did you do to my brother?"

"Why, little one," Jane said, smirking in all of her superiority. "To become a vampire."

"Vampires aren't real," Gray said.

Jane laughed again, and Lex looked from them back to Jane.

"Come on, give it up. Nobody would believe a bunch of kids," Lex said, knowing that their lives, their humanity-it all relied on her ability to argue or to fight. "Don't make them make that choice."

"And just kill ruthlessly?" Jane raised her eyebrows. "I thought that was looked down upon in your family."

She spat the word 'family.' Lex bit her lip, trying to think fast.

"It is, not that you care what my family thinks," Lex said.

"It is true that there is quite a bit of- shall I say bad blood?-between the Volturi and the Cullens," Jane acknowledged, advancing as Lex started to step back. "I'm sure this could end, here and now."

Lex's blood went cold.

"What are you talking about?" she managed, although she felt like her throat was stopped up.

"With the genetically modified dinosaur those idiotic humans made, it will just look like an ugly mistake," Jane said, not even caring as the boys were starting to edge away, her eyes locked completely on Lex. "Imagine the headlines, will you?"

She tried to punch Lex, who dodged with her newly enhanced reflexes. She smirked even at this miss.

"Jurassic World Donor and Family Eaten by Their Own Creation," Jane taunted as Lex retreated up the stairs. "Quite a work of art for journalism, wouldn't you think?"

An attempt to kick Lex when she temporarily slipped on a vine and gripped the railing. A quick stumble of surprise when Lex landed a punch on her that hurt her knuckles.

"Great Cullens of Forks Hospital Become Dinosaur Lunch," Jane added as she advanced up the stairs in her speed. Lex looked down at the entry room, and saw Zach running out to the base of the steps, Gray behind him.

Run, don't be heroes, Lex thought as she dodged another attempt to hurt her from Jane. She started to drop into the ceiling passage to the long-rusted computer control room that had caused the first park's doom.

Jane started using her super-speed to try to catch Lex, having enough of the theatrics. Lex herself started running faster than she ever had before, dodging the shrapnel caused by Jane running through the computers. She darted through the door and ran through the abandoned labs, bringing cases of embryos smashing down to subdue Jane.

Lex then ran to the entry, and was grateful to not see either of the boys. No one should have to die because of me, she thought as she tried to dash for the door, only to drop to her knees in pain. She writhed as fire seemed to spread all over her limbs, with stabs and pinpricks all over, as she screamed and screamed.

Jane knelt down to hover over Lex and smirked. "Any last words for your dear mother before I kill you? Something to whisper to her before I turn her to dust?"

Lex could only scream in terror and pain as her heart throbbed in her ears. This'll be the day that I die. This'll be the day that I die, she couldn't help but think.

Still, on some reflex when Jane's hand was about to hit her skull at possibly lethal force, she shot her hand out to block, despite feeling the insane amount of pain raging in her body. She then tried to roll away from Jane.

"Hey! You!"

Jane looked away towards the entrance, and Lex was instantly free of the pain. Zach was clutching a torch, Gray right next to him. Lex sprang to her feet and tackled Jane to the floor before she could reach the boys. Like a snake, however, Jane still tried to slide across the floor to the boys while snapping viciously. She then used her power and sent Lex writhing as she rolled off of her.

As Jane strode to Lex, her mouth foaming with anger, Zach threw his torch. It hit flame-first, and Jane screamed. Zach covered Gray's ears and turned him to face away. Lex darted out of the way of the walking inferno that had enveloped Jane. Lex grabbed her water bottle from the base of the stairs and tossed it at her. The fire died, but Jane was gone.

"It's safe now," Lex called. Zach and Gray hesitantly walked towards her.

* * *

Carlisle sighed when his phone started ringing. A few people stared in his direction as "Stars" from "Les Miserables" played from his iPhone 9 and he dug it out. It was an unknown caller that was blocked from caller ID, so he had no choice but to answer.

"Hello," he said in his cool voice.

"Is this Dr. Carlisle Cullen?"

"Yes, it would be," he replied. "What can I do for you?"

"Dr. Wu wants you in the labs immediately. He says he needs your assistance."

"Tell Dr. Wu I'll be there in fifteen minutes," Carlisle said, and he hung up. Esme looked at him expectantly.

"What's up?" she asked.

"Dr. Wu needs me in his lab," he said. "Call me if you find Lex."

With that, he disappeared into the crowd in the plaza.


	9. Old Park

"What was that?" Zach asked as he and Gray walked over to her.

Lex hesitated for a moment, her brain searching for a lie.

"An assassin for a triumvirate of crime lords in Italy," she said quickly.

"An assassin? She was totally only fourteen or fifteen," Zach protested.

"She's one of the granddaughters of the triumvirate," Lex improvised. "Kinda had to be."

"I didn't know that you'd be into trouble with crime lords," Zach said. "Like you said, you're a nerd with an ordinary life. Besides, doesn't explain what she did-the pain-whatever it was."

"Oh, she has a special technology inserted in her brain that allows her to cause people's nerves to act up," Lex said. "Really complicated, too. And it's not me! My grandfather when he was much younger had been studying in Italy and kinda got caught up in that stuff."

"That's still weird, with her talking about 'our world' and them calling us humans," Zach shot back. "Just give me a straight answer, since you're a horrible liar."

"I can't!" Lex shouted, her voice rising in panic. "They'll kill anyone who knows! Okay? So the story is the crime lord, because the other one will get you killed!"

"We're not gonna tell anybody," Zach said, calming down slightly. "Just give a straight answer."

"Fine, but you're not gonna believe me," she promised. "My family is full of the sparkly undead with X-men powers and they've been in conflict with the equally sparkly and undead and twice as X-men Italian government for twenty-one years. Does that explain it adequately enough for you?"

Gray nodded obediently, but Zach just blinked like a goldfish.

"I told you that you wouldn't believe me," she said snobbishly, and she turned away in a way that made her sagging bun of hair attempt to flip while she retrieved her backpack and what was in it. "Come on, let's look around and see if there are any more sparkly undead."

"She sparkled?" Gray whispered to Zach.

"Only in the sunlight," Lex added as she walked back to them.

The boys just shrugged. Raptors, vampires, it didn't make a difference. Strange things had already been seen on the island. Another strange one didn't matter.

They stuck together in the eerie and dark old park, looking at the old objects. Zach reached out to touch a sculpture of a velociraptor. Gray and Lex lingered, unable to look away from the raptor.

"Gray! Lex!"

Lex looked over at Gray, and they jogged over to where the light (and Zach) was. They entered a room stocked with dusty plastic supplies that might've been in the ACU of the old park, if they had one.

Gray picked up a pair of goggles and jumped when the lenses expanded. Lex's eyes couldn't help but take in all the remains of the world that Hammond had build years and years ago. All that was left was broken dreams and remains of the past.

They approached the ivy-covered jeeps.

"1992, Jeep Sahara Rampage," Gray said quietly, making Lex jump as he recognized the car under the layers of dust, dirt, and planet life. Zach looked at him thoughtfully.

"Hey, remember when we fixed Grandpa's car?" Zach asked.

* * *

"Who are you?" the woman at the computer guarding the entrance to the labs asked as Carlisle approached.

"Dr. Carlisle Cullen," he answered coolly. "Dr. Wu wished for me to come."

"Dr. Wu?" She raised her eyebrows and quickly scanned through her memos. "Oh yes, come in, he'll be in his office. You know where it is, correct?"

"I do, thank you, madam," Carlisle replied with a warm smile and he walked through the door to where the labs were. As scientists in white ran around doing their everyday business, Carlisle wove between them and into Dr. Wu's office, where he had been only earlier that day. He saw Mr. Masarani slam the door on the way entered.

"Dr. Cullen," Dr. Wu said, standing up from his desk. "I was wondering when you would arrive. Ms. Dearing and Mr. Grady had sent over the information on VH1-"

"Alexis," Carlisle interrupted.

"What?" Dr. Wu asked, thrown off by the interruption.

"Her name is Alexis," Carlisle explained. "You called her VH1. She is a person and she has a name. I believe we should use it."

"Alright, information on Alexis," Dr. Wu finally amended. "Apparently she was able to communicate with the raptors and understand them in under five minutes. Faster than VH2, VH3, and VH4."

"Wait, all of them have been tested?" Carlisle asked, his eyes going wide. "I thought the others weren't even on the island!"

"They've all been coming in throughout the week," Dr. Wu said, sounding indignant. "Didn't you read the email I sent you?"

"I've been busy," Carlisle said vaguely.

"You're the program director! You aren't supposed to be ignoring important emails on the project's development!"

"Well, I'm here now," Carlisle said, finally starting to get testy. "What's the problem?"

"We have a problem with asset containment that may require the VH project to spring into use a bit earlier than planned," Dr. Wu answered.

"You want to send fourteen-year-olds out after whatever you created this time?" Carlisle demanded, getting to his feet. "You won't even tell me what this dinosaur is! I don't approve of this!"

"You aren't the only leader of the project." Dr. Wu replied calmly, but he was fighting to keep the mask of calm.

"I'm the director, you are the head scientist," Carlisle said. "I will make the decision that I feel is best for the subjects."

"If you are not willing to see the benefits, just you wait and see what your selfishness will lead to," Dr. Wu snapped. "When hundreds of lives have been wasted-"

"Hundreds?" Carlisle closed the distance between him and Dr. Wu until they were only a foot apart. "I ask again. What dinosaur did you make that would cause that?"

"That knowledge is not available to the public-"

"I'm not the public, I'm your donor and superior!" Carlisle yelled, finally losing it. He'd seen vampires with this sort of disregard for life before. Of course, Dr. Wu talked as if he was going to save lives, but he didn't like the implication of lives being lost in the first place.

"A genetically modified dinosaur by the name of Indominus Rex," Dr. Wu finally answered reluctantly. "What is in it, I can't even tell Mr. Masarani or Ms. Dearing. I might not even remember everything that went into her."

"Well thank you for that, then," Carlisle said coolly as he started to walk towards the door. "If I could trouble you for one more piece of information- where are the other three?"

"Since you denied the tracker, I have no idea, but I'd suspect that they're probably in the plaza, since we're having to evacuate more rides every ten minutes," Dr. Wu said. "Good day, Dr. Cullen."

"Well good day to you as well!" Carlisle snapped right before he left. He had to get the other subjects out of the park before Dr. Wu tried to undermine his authority and go too far. He briefly remembered the names from the files and emails he had seen countless times in the past fourteen years.

Ellen Pennington. Lives near Chicago, Illinois. Is raised by her actual birth parents, unlike the others.

Sarah Cipriano. Lives in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Raised by her grandmother.

Alan Reynolds. Lives in Paris, Texas. Raised by adoptive parents. Birth name was Havisham.

Carlisle had seen photographs from the fourteen updates in paperwork that Dr. Wu had sent. He knew he had to find these kids and get them out of the park. He had to. He began to return to the bungalow that he and the other Cullens would be staying at.

* * *

"You realize that we need a battery to correctly jump-start this, right?" Lex called from below the car as she checked over the steering and transmission while Gray and Zach worked under the hood.

"Yeah, but we need to get the rest of it in good enough shape to make sure it doesn't immediately die," Zach said. "I was thinking that we could make one out of the other engine, and we'll find some power in the computer room."

"You sure know a lot about cars," Lex said as she crawled out from under the car. Zach offered a greasy hand to help her up. "Thanks."

"No problem," he said with a small smile. "I actually liked learning about the engine and stuff, not the stupid science they make you do in school."

"Oh come on, some of the labs are kinda fun," Lex said. "But maybe we have different science courses."

"Of course you would," he muttered before looking to Gray, who gave him a thumb's up. "Being a big nerd and all."

"That's me," Lex said cheerfully. "That's cool that you know so much, though."

He shrugged. "It was the better part of Driver's Ed."

"Zach, can you help me?" Gray asked. Zach nodded and turned around to help Gray use a slightly rusted wrench. Lex pulled her hair free, then tied it back into the bun it was in before, albeit less messy. Her eyes took in more light naturally now, and she was scanning the room for parts. She remembered the textbooks and manuals showing how to make a battery. The pictures drifted into her vision, all the pieces falling into place right before her very eyes.

She started looking for similar parts while her mind seemed to skip around in circles as it tried to connect the pieces of both the hypothetical battery and how it would work.

* * *

More and more people filled the plaza. The Cullens watched with the same grim, sad aura as ravens. They couldn't help but sit there and watch as more and more disgruntled people entered the plaza.

Jacob held Nessie close and protectively to make sure they didn't hurt his Nessie. Bella was doing everything she could not to pace or make a scene, but she was worried more than ever about her daughter. How could this happen to them? Was Lexie dead? Alive? Who knew? Either way, she knew that she'd give anything just to see her daughter again.

Alice suddenly gasped.

"What's wrong?" Everyone chorused as their heads swiveled to look at Alice.

"The Volutri are on the island," Alice said.

"It's natural that they'd want a hand in the projects here," Edward said calmly. "It helps them know if any of these dinosaurs are a threat to our kind."

"But it gets worse," Alice said. "I saw Jane die. There were two boys and something else that I couldn't see that killed her, partially with fire."

"Where were they?" Edward asked.

"In the jungle, in some abandoned building somewhere," Alice said, closing her eyes as she struggled to focus.

Esme jumped, recognizing the description. "You're talking about the old park, Alice! What was Jane doing in the old park?"

"Do you think that Lexie was there?" Bella asked.

Alice frowned. "If Lexie was there, that would explain everything. I don't know. I can't see her, but if that was the thing I couldn't see, then Jane must've been trying to kill her!"

"So the Volutri is back?" Nessie asked, trembling a little at the memory of the clan that had wanted her dead.

"I believe so," Esme said calmly.

Alice's eyes shot open and she sprang to her feet.

"We need to leave. Now!"

"But what about Lexie?" Bella demanded. "What about Rosalie and Carlisle?"

"They'll be fine, but we all need to run!" Alice cried. "The pteranodon are coming!"


	10. Battery

Carlisle had delivered slips to each of the remaining victims of Project VH. He'd watched them leave on the ferries.

He was relieved to see that they were safe. If only he could just get Lex and the rest of his family off of the island. He walked back into the hotel to see Alice leading the rest of his family and a disgruntled Rosalie.

"Carlisle!" Alice's angelic face was distraught and she hugged her father figure. "We need to go! I can see it coming, we have to leave before it happens!"

"What about Alexis?" Carlisle asked. "We need to get her off of the island."

"If we want to survive, we have to go!" Alice argued.

"At the cost of your niece?" Carlisle asked.

"She'd want this," Rosalie said suddenly. "She'd want the rest of us to survive if she couldn't! If Alice is right, it's time to give up."

"How dare you ask that!" Bella screamed, grabbing Rosalie by the golden chain around her throat. Rosalie struggled so hard that the chain broke and the ruby on it popped to the floor, gathering the attention of the people around. Bella then pulled on Rosalie's stylish t-shirt and had lifted her a few inches off of the ground. Her golden eyes were all fury as Rosalie snapped at her.

"We aren't leaving without my daughter!" Bella snarled. "We can all die for all I care! Family doesn't leave one another!"

Nessie narrowed her eyes and strode forward with a calm determination that soothed her mother.

"Whatever happened to me, the daughter you were so willing to fight for?" Nessie demanded. "The daughter you were willing to die for? I know Lexie, and she'd call this stupid. If anything, she's out there, rescuing herself. But if you're so concerned with this, then take pride in this. We'll make our own decisions."

Rosalie then wrenched Bella's hands apart and returned to the ground.

"Well, I'm leaving if Alice says that there's danger. Is anyone with me?" Rosalie asked.

Alice was the first to step forwards. With a glance back to the rest of her family, everyone except for Bella and Carlisle had stepped with the group that was going to leave.

"Esme," Carlisle said softly, his eyes pleading with Esme for her to stay.

She shook her head sadly.

"Someone needs to run the family if you're going to go and be brave," she said. She then quickly hugged him and gave him a kiss with all that she'd ever felt for him. It was racing through their minds that this could be the last time they'd see each other.

Charlie was staring at his daughter, crying as Edward tried to convince her. Charlie knew that he'd lost his daughter before to some sort of Faustian bargain leading to his biological granddaughter. He wasn't surprised to lose her again, but it didn't mean that it didn't stab and tear at his heart in little shreds, making him feel like he was dying yet again.

The Cullens were finally divided once and for all as Esme stepped away from Carlisle. Bella realized that she finally had the strength to stay away from Edward and to follow.

* * *

With grease smudging her face, Lex grinned proudly at her creation. A beast of metal and machine that had wires and bolts and gears jutting outside of its main container.

"What is it?" Gray finally asked.

"A self-generating battery with my name on it that is currently sitting in the U.S. patent office right now," Lex explained proudly. "Just turn the crank, hook it up to the car, and it should jump-start it in no time."

"Do you know how to jump-start it?" Zach asked.

Lex bit her lip. "I think I forgot how. Could you remind me?"

"Never mind, I've got it," he said, taking the device. "Where do you hook it up?"

"The black goes here," she said, tapping a bolt. "Red goes here."

Zach nodded and began hooking up the jumper cables. He started cranking it, and was starting to get impatient when the jeep roared to life.

"Okay, this is pretty cool," Zach said with a sort of smile of relief as he looked to Lex.

"Thanks," she said, her face turning a little pink.

"Let's get in," Zach said, and he closed the hood of the trunk and hopped into the driver's seat.

"I thought you failed Driver's Ed," Gray said hesitantly as he hopped in the shotgun, forcing Lex to take the back.

"Only the driving part," Zach replied.

"I wouldn't have pegged you as one to have passed the written exams," Lex said. "Are you sure that I shouldn't take the wheel? Since I actually passed Driver's Ed this fall?"

"She's got a point," Gray pointed out.

"Such faith in me," Zach muttered as he rolled his eyes. He let go of the wheel and he crawled into the back while Lex dived headfirst into the dusty leather seat and crawled into driving position.

"No seatbelt. Lovely," she remarked dryly as she placed her hands faithfully at ten and two. "Let's see if we can get help."

With that, she slammed the gas pedal and they took off into the jungles of the old park.


	11. Pterodactyls

They laughed as they burst through the gates.

"We'll be safe now," Zach said.

Gray then, sensing some sort of danger, looked behind him to see a flock of pterodactyl. Zach behind him looked at the danger, and Lex's own green eyes flicked to the rear-view mirror. She slammed down the gas pedals, going the speed-limit Edward liked to.

"Are you used to going this fast?" Zach asked, clutching onto the rusty frame in attempt to hang on.

"More than you know!" Lex cried. "My dad's a fast driver. Besides, we slow down, we die!"

"We die?" Gray cried, looking to the sky again.

"Pterodactyls-"

"I know!" Gray shrieked. "I know! You don't need to tell me how they hunt! I know!" He covered his ears and began to cry.

"We're going to be okay," Zach said, reaching out to pat his brother. "We're going to be fine."

"Sorry," Lex mumbled as they continued up a hill to where the gates were.

"Open the gates!" The three of them screamed. "Let us in!"

The gates swung open and Lex halted the car. It gave a little shudder, and a woman with long black hair in a white jacket walked over to them briskly.

"Ms. Dearing's been looking for you," the woman said to the boys. She glanced at Lex. "Are you the Cullen girl that went missing?"

Lex nodded, but then heard the flapping of the pterodactyls above. The woman ushered them towards the plaza as they began to run. She ran behind the boys, but the assistant made sure that she was last, that they were moving safely.

They were briefly separated as they dodged people and exited the alleyway past the Gentle Giants exhibit. Zach and Lex stopped, Zach pulling Gray closer to him. Overwhelmed by the pterodactyls swooping around them and the screams of the people, they stood there, watching death roll in.

Lex's heart was hammering in her chest as she struggled to breathe. She'd never been so aware of the bright daylight piercing at her eyes as she took in every detail, every little thing and her ears felt blocked-up from all the screaming and running. She could feel Zach's skin brushing up against her, occasionally Gray's arm, the whoosh of wings missing her by inches.

"Well don't just stand there!" the assistant cried, having finally caught up to them, only to scream as a pterodactyl swooped her up. Gray gasped in shock as he watched her get dropped and then picked up by another pterodactyl.

Lex ran forwards when she saw the assistant get dropped into the tank. Maybe she could help her, maybe she could save her if she could get close enough to help-

She stopped at the railing, clutching the horizontal bar in front of her as she searched frantically for the assistant. She then spotted her being pulled out by a pterodactyl, then dunked back in and pulled out again.

Zach and Gray came up behind her to watch as the assistant was dunked _again_ and dragged towards the sky. A mosasaur then jumped out, eating both the pterodactyl and the assistant whole before returning to the fathoms below.

Zach began to drag Gray away as his jaw dropped at the horrible sight. Lex let out a cry as she backed away, horrified at what she'd seen. Before Lex could dwell on it further, Zach pushed her and Gray towards a path they could run towards. Where they were running to, Lex had no idea, but all her instincts told her was to run, to find some place to hide from the storm of life finding a way.

* * *

Edward's eyes couldn't leave this screen. He could only see the people running and screaming as they tried to avoid being prey. Memories of his vigilante days flashed in front of his eyes as he tried to search for Bella and Carlisle on the cameras.

His eyes unexpectedly caught outside of the Brookstone store a muddy, grease-covered Lexie. His precious daughter was there! For a moment, joy spiked in his heart that had not beaten for years. Then it dropped. His daughter was there.

He watched as she ran towards the mosasaur tank, followed by two boys, one her age and one that was approximately twelve years old. He then watched as the older boy pushed her and the younger one towards the path on the left and watched them run against the tide.

Edward gasped when the camera switched to the one inside the Margaritaville to reveal Carlisle and Bella crawling on shards of broken glass, trying to avoid being spotted by the pterodactyls.

For once in his immortal life, he was afraid for his wife and father figure. According to the measurements in the file, pterodactyls were big enough to swallow vampires whole. He knew that he could lose them forever in one day. Another day flashed in front of him. The day he almost ended his life via the Volturi to end the pain of what he thought was living without Bella. He'd do it and follow through completely if he lost her and his father figure and his youngest daughter today.

Nessie reached her hand out and opened her father's clenched fist, fitting her own hand in there instead as they watched the suffering with an immortal sorrow.

* * *

Lex grabbed Gray's other hand as they ran past the Margaritaville, avoiding the people running in the opposite direction. Zach and her glanced behind, seeing a pterodactyl closing in. Lex began picking up her knees, her sneakers slapped the pavement harder and harder in attempt to run.

Zach looked back as they passed the colorful display of the Lego Store, and ushered the two just as the pterodactyl swooped in for the kill. They jumped as the pterodactyl collided with glass and a table, causing Lex to land and skid on her butt for a few minutes, leaving a scrape along the back and side of her thighs. She scooted backwards, seeing the sharp beak coming for her. She backed up next to the brothers, holding Zach's hand as his arm hovered over Gray.

The beak inched forwards, then came to a stop. Lex breathed heavily, but was too petrified to move. There was a cry from a pterodactyl, and the three turned their heads to see a woman in heels shoot one off of a man.

Zach scooted out and helped Gray and Lex up. They stood there, watching the woman. Lex remembered her from the labs earlier. _Ms. Dearing, right?_

"Is that Aunt Claire?" Zach asked, surprised by something in the woman's demeanor or appearance as she helped the man she saved up and kissed him. They broke away, noticing the kids.

"ZACH! GRAY!"

The woman, Claire, ran over and took Gray's face into her hands.

"What happened? What is this?" she sobbed. "Are you okay? Where did you go? Why didn't you come back? I was so worried about you-"

"Who's that?" Zach interrupted, looking at the man who Claire had saved that was walking towards them. Lex let out a little gasp, recognizing him as the raptor trainer, Owen Grady.

Claire straightened and glanced at Owen.

"We work together."

Zach eyed him suspiciously as Claire's eyes wandered over to Lex.

"Alexis Cullen?" Claire asked.

"Yes," Lex answered, still slightly out-of-breath.

"Your family evacuated-we'll meet them at the evacuation site," Claire promised.

"Hey, we gotta go," Owen interrupted.

Claire nodded. "Okay, let's go," she said, putting her arms around her nephews and nodding for Lex to follow them. She quickly let go to put on her phone, though.

"Lowry, we're on our way," Claire said, but then was cut off by someone. "Use the raptors?"

"Son of a bitch," Owen muttered upon realizing what that meant.

"You shouldn't say bitch," Gray protested.

"Let's get the kids to safety and-"

Owen was interrupted by the rumble of the gates. The five of them quickly ran for the Jurassic World van and backed into a siding as people ran past.

"Can we stay with you?" Zach asked after a moment.

"I'm never letting you out of my sight again," Claire answered.

"No, him," Zach said.

"Definitely him," Gray added.

Lex shrugged. "I'll take the lady that shot a pterodactyl."


	12. Say Goodbye

Edward could hear the thoughts of Carlisle, and turned to have his beloved run into his arms. He held Bella dearly, letting their thoughts mingle together, ignoring the symphony of horror around them.

"Where's Alexis?" Edward asked when they broke away.

"She-she's gone, Edward, we couldn't find her," Bella said. "O-Our daughter is gone."

"She can't be!" Edward cried. "I saw her in the plaza," Edward said. "With two boys. I think they were with that woman that looks like Victoria."

Bella shuddered imperceptibly at the thought. "The manager? I thought she was rather awful. We need to-"

"They wouldn't let us through," Carlisle interrupted. "We're remaining in this site."

"That woman better know what she's doing with my child," Bella snarled.

* * *

Hoskins looked over at the sixteen-year-old girl with the raptor eyes.

"All of the other members of Project VH have been evacuated," so said. "And we're already going to release the raptors. It only makes sense that we use you and your abilities as well."

Lex frowned and crossed her arms over her chest, feeling uncomfortable.

"Hoskins, I don't like this," Owen commented. "I already gave on the raptors. VH was a failure. It won't be needed after today. The park failed. This failed. This isn't a good idea."

"Sign me up," Lex said, her voice quiet but strong.

Everyone looked back at her in surprise.

"Alexis," Claire began. "You don't have to do this. You can stay with the boys. You don't owe us anything."

"No, I want to help," Lex replied, her voice a little stronger, a little more sure. "If I can help, why shouldn't I? Give me a weapon, we'll see what I can do."

"This isn't some little game," Owen reminded her. "This is real."

"I know it's real," Lex replied. "I'm ready. I can do it."

"Then it's settled. We'll get her a gun and she'll run alongside the raptors," Hoskins said, seeming satisfied.

Lex nodded and watched as the others dispersed. She first walked to Zach, out by the van.

"Hey," she mumbled.

"Hey."

"So, are you riding in the back of the van?" Lex asked.

"Yeah," Zach answered. "There's really nowhere safe for us to stay."

"That's cool," Lex said, and her eyes flickered to her muddy shoes. She glanced back up to find him doing the same thing. "I guess you and Gray will be going back to Minnesota after this."

"Yeah," he said. "It's gonna be kinda tense though, with our parents getting a divorce."

"Your parents are divorcing?" she asked, taken aback.

"Yeah," Zach answered. "Gray's been pretty upset about it. I guessed, but I didn't know for sure until today."

"That sucks," Lex said, unable to comprehend the idea of love dying. It was just the way things were in her household. The immortality of youthful love with fireworks and roses. Watching her friends talk about divorces, and watching Zach talk about his parents, she began to realize that the fireworks weren't enough. She didn't want that. She wanted a mustard tree, small at first that would grow to a giant tree. She wanted the feeling of growing old with someone, a sort of different love.

Aunt Rosalie had been trying to tell her that all along, she realized. She looked back at Zach with a new understanding.

"I'm just sorry everything turned out this way," she said quietly. "John Hammond's park. All he wanted to do was make people happy."

"Yeah," Zach agreed. "But I'd rather be home right now."

"Me too," Lex said softly. "I think I'd miss talking to you, though. You and Gray are pretty cool."

"I guess," Zach replied, allowing himself a dorky smile. "Maybe we can text each other when this is all over."

"That would be nice," Lex agreed as they became quiet again. She then remembered what she was going to say to him and unslung her backpack. "Could you take this? I think you'll be a lot luckier with it then I will."

"Sure," Zach said as he slung it over his shoulder. "Thanks for helping me and Gray get out of the old park. You're pretty cool, for a nerd."

"And you're pretty cool, for a loner," Lex replied with a smile. She looked around for a moment, and then took a chance. She kissed him.

It was a small peck, nothing fancy. It was more of a I-might-die-tonight-and-this-was-on-my-bucket-list kind of thing. What surprised her was that he was kissing her back. She had a feeling it might've been for the same reasons she was kissing, but hell, the chances were that she'd die anyway. Either of them could.

When they broke away, they silently seemed to come to some agreement. Zach then looked over to a pale, wide-eyed Gray and put an arm around him. Lex managed a smile, and then looked over at the raptors. She could hear the hisses of hunting, of Owen, of hatred. What the raptors had to say was disturbing.

Lex never wanted to be anything like that.


	13. Part Raptor

There was the sounds of the raptors flying. It sounded like flying, at least. To Lex, it felt like flying. She was running aside the raptors, as fast as a vampire could run. With the gun strapped to her back slapping against it every step, it was uncomfortable and too heavy.

She'd the van where Zach and Gray were inside and gave a tiny wave to Claire (who insisted that she call her that) and continued on with the raptors. She now had caught up to Owen on his motorcycle. She face a little warning hiss to the raptors and tried to follow the scent that was making her uncomfortable.

The roar was growing louder and louder. The roar of a female voice filled with power. Lex could hear the power in the creature they told her she was hunting. The

Indominus Rex. Of course Indominus was female, Lex said to herself. As her Aunt Rosalie would say, women were made to be powerful. With the gift of life and the threat of patriarchy, women had to be goddesses.

Lex had heard her mother describe many other vampires, including her aunt, to look like goddesses. Lex knew now that she was wrong as she drew closer and smelled blood. She knew that a goddess wasn't insanely beautiful and beguiling to men. A goddess, she was realizing as she stopped in front of the large creature, was this thing.

Reeking of horrors Lex didn't want to think about, shimmering in the lights of the trucks and motorcycles, Indominus was a goddess in her own right, full of power and a sadistic want to control the mere mortals.

Her shaky hands took the shotgun off of her back, or whatever it was (Emmett would know more than her). She tried to position it like the other people and quickly took the safety off, like Emmett showed her when she turned thirteen.

" _Ready, girls?"_ Blue hissed.

 **"Really?"**

Lex dropped her gun in shock and was almost paralyzed. Did she really just hear the Indominus talk?

" _You can talk to us?_ " Charlie asked.

" **Yeah, I'm related to you.** "

" _But you're not a raptor_!" Echo insisted.

The Indominus let out bursts of shrieky laughter. " **Think of me as a distant cousin. In fact, family ties mean something to you, do they not? I'm your family, and those people are trying to kill me.** "

" _B-But Owen,_ " Blue protested.

" **Owen is just using you for some stupid show. Do you want to live behind glass or in freedom? If you want to be free, fight for me.** "

"But Owen is family!" Lex shouted, finally having some courage. "I'm a cousin to you as well, and Owen a sort of cousin to me! He's still your family, since you're related to me!"

" **You can live. But they can't. They don't share the important thing. We're cousins. They aren't. That's how it is.** "

Lex shook her head and took a step back, despite the pounding in her chest, the fear making her legs shake.

"I stand with the humans. I will never fight with you. Don't do this."

She then watched as the other raptors hissed their assent.

"That thing's part raptor."

She heard the words coming from Owen, and she vaguely remembered her gun. She leaned to pick it up, only to hear the order.

"ENGAGE!"

She dropped to the ground, out of the way of the spray of bullets being released into the air. When the initial shooting stopped, she slowly looked up to see trees on fire. She got to her feet as the others began searching after the Indominus and ran. She didn't care that she was backing out of a commitment, that she was leaving them behind. She was only a kid, one that barely knew how to hold a gun and remove the safety.

She had to run, had to go back home. She couldn't stand to be anywhere near this island. Everything in her was screaming to run as screams rang into the air.

* * *

She exhaled a sigh of relief when she saw the truck coming into view. She sped up, hearing humans coming up behind her. She ripped open the doors to the vans, causing Zach and Gray to jump as she climbed into the back and shut the door. There was a non-verbal understanding between them right before they looked through the window.

"Is everyone dead?" Gray asked Claire softly.

"No, no," Claire said quickly, her hands working to hide the tablet showing the deaths. "Everyone's fine."

"Don't lie to him!" Zach barked.

"He's scared!" Claire snapped. "It's okay to lie when people are scared!"

"I wanna go home," Gray sniffled.

"You will, and then your mom will never let me see you again," Claire said, trailing off reluctantly. There was then a slap on the window and the four jumped. Lex could smell the blood so strongly that she wanted to throw up.

"Go!" A man yelled. Right then, a man pulled open the doors of the van.

"They're coming!"

He was then jumped by a velociraptor and Claire hit the gas. Both the man and the raptor went flying out of the car, leaving the doors swinging. As the truck shuddered along the path, Lex could see a raptor gaining on them. Zach and her exchanged a look and stood up. They struggled forwards with the greatest possible caution. They quickly grabbed onto a giant carton of something and tossed it off the back, subduing the beast for a moment.

Then it sped up, running too fast for Lex's liking. Gray grabbed a shock-stick off of the wall, drawing Lex's attention.

"How do you turn this on?" Zach demanded.

"How am I supposed to know?" Lex retorted.

"Turn it on! Turn it on!" Gray cried as the three of them fumbled for an on-switch, only to have to ram it straight at the raptor. With a scream of pain, the raptor fell off of the truck, leaving the doors swinging once more.

"Are you okay back there?" Claire asked.

"Yeah," Lex said.

"I can't wait to tell Mom!" Gray declared.

"Oh no, you can never tell your mother about that," Claire said.

Lex's heart picked up the pace when she saw another shadow, but was relieved to see the headlights of Owen's motorcycle.

"Owen!" The three screamed in delight. Lex then got up and finally closed the doors. She looked over to the boys and took her backpack from Zach.

"Thanks for keeping it for me," she said with a small smile.

"It was no problem."


	14. Smarts

Lex settled in the back of the van and took deep breaths to try and calm her racing heart. While Zach and Gray had let go of the shock stick, her clammy fist still clung to it like life itself. Her thumb slid over the off-switch, but she wouldn't let go of the weapon. She remembered how defenseless they were when she was stupid enough to drop her gun.

All her life, she'd been severely protected, she realized. The Cullens were vampires with werewolf guardians and several allies around the world. With all the money, super-strength, and light-speed, they all could protect her from any dangers. In fact, now that Lex thought about it, the reason any bully she ever had would leave her alone was because Emmett, Jasper, and Nessie would take care of it.

If anything, Lex was never going to let herself depend on others to protect her. She had to be able to do it herself. At least the Indominus showed her that. She then looked over to Gray and Zach, and scooted over to where they were sitting.

"Are you doing alright?" she asked Gray.

"I-I'm fine," Gray told her.

"It's okay if you're not," Zach said.

"I just wanna go home," Gray explained. "I just wanna go where I can be safe. I want to look at my dinosaurs. Ones that I know won't hurt me."

"You like dinosaurs?" Lex asked.

"Yeah," Gray said. "I love dinosaurs. I know almost everything about them."

"I bet you'll be writing great big books about dinosaurs when you're older, right?" Lex said.

"I guess," Gray said with a shrug. "I just wanna leave with Aunt Claire. I don't want to go home, I guess, either. Not with Mom and Dad's divorce."

"I'm sorry," Lex said. "That's gotta suck."

"It does," the boys chorused. They were quiet for a moment.

"Are you alright?" Lex asked Zach now.

"I guess," Zach replied with a shrug. "You?"

"I'm not," she admitted. "I just realized how much I don't know, how sheltered I really am. But I guess you could figure that out. You acted so quick back in the plaza. I wish I was as smart as you."

"No, you're pretty smart," he said. "I never would be able to make my own engine. I just have street smarts. You're a preppy book-smart kid."

"Yeah, but yours seems more useful," Lex said. "I'm useless."

Zach took her wrist. "Lex, you're not useless. You made the engine, and you helped fend off that raptor. We work together. All three of us can figure out anything to survive."

"The three of us," Lex echoed, and she smiled at Zach, then at Gray. "Can I have your number when we get out of here? So maybe we can talk. I have a feeling we're gonna have a lot of things to talk about."

"I'll have to give you my mom's number since I lost mine in the gyrospheres, but sure," Zach said, blushing a little bit.

Lex couldn't help but smile as her cheeks turned pink right back. The truck then pulled to a stop. She leapt to her feet and pushed open the doors of the back of the van. She jumped down and helped Gray down, and she and Zach ran, each holding a hand of the younger Mitchell, to Owen and Claire.

From there, they jogged up the stairs and into the labs. There, they saw soldiers hauling away eggs into cryogenic cases.

"What's going on?" Claire demanded.

"I'm afraid that's above your pay grade, honey," Hoskins drawled, drawing attention of the five.

Claire bristled at the term 'honey.'

"Where's Henry?" she demanded coolly and clearly, still every inch an Ice Queen of the island.

"Dr. Wu? He works for us," Hoskins answered.

"He works for my grandfather," Lex said quietly.

"Dr. Cullen wanted these evacuated," Hoskins shot back. "With Masarani dead, Dr. Cullen is the new CEO."

Gray looked over at one of the screens at what was clearly the Indominus.

"That's not a real dinosaur," Gray said.

"No it ain't, kid," Hoskins said with a sort of deranged smirk. Zach pulled his little brother closer. "But somebody's gotta make sure this company has a future. Imagine that, but a fraction of the size. Able to hide from the most advanced military technology. A living weapon unlike anything we've ever seen. You see, millions of years in evolution-what did we learn? Nature is the gift of j- OH SHIT!"

As Hoskins backed up for the raptor that had burst through the glass, Owen outstretched his arms to protect Claire, Gray, Lex, and Zach as they backed away from the volatile velociraptor.

Lex shivered at the graphic descriptions the raptor was hissing of how she was going to kill. She grappled Zach's hand as a reflex, not even thinking to let go for one moment.

"Easy! Easy boy! We're on the same side!" Hoskins pleaded, backed up against glass.

 _"We're not on the same side, and I'm a girl!"_ Echo roared right before she bit into Hoskins' hand. He screamed as Owen ordered them to run.

Gray, Zach, and Lex burst into the hallway, Claire and Owen trailing after them.

"It's this way, come on!" Claire cried. They started down when Echo burst through the glass. They then turned around and high-tailed it outside. They stopped just to be surrounded by raptors.


	15. Rexy

"So that's how it is," Owen announced to the hissing of the raptors. Lex squeezed Zach's hand in fear, but he didn't let go or push her away. She listened to the hisses of blood and death. Her open hand flicked on the switch of the shock-stick. She was going to defend herself this time, whether or not it involved death.

" _Put the gun down!_ " Charlie shrieked.

" _Yeah_ ," Echo and Delta agreed. Somehow, Owen understood and set the gun down slowly so not to startle them.

" _Don't_ ," Blue said pleadingly as Owen reached his hand out toward her. " _Don't make this harder than it already is_."

"Easy, easy," Owen said gently as he then took off Blue's harness. It dropped to the pavement with a clack. "That's it."

" **What are you waiting for? Kill them!** "

Lex looked up to see the Indominus coming into view.

" **KILL THEM NOW**!"

" _I'm on your side now_ ," Blue said, looking at Owen. She looked back at the Indominus defiantly. " _Fight me!_ "

" **Gladly**!"

Blue then launched herself at the giant dinosaur, only for Indominus to throw her at the Starbucks. Lex watched in horror as the brave raptor barely stirred. She looked back to the Indominus as the raptors declared their vengeance, ready to fight for their fallen sister.

Owen whistled, and they leapt onto Indominus.

Lex ran after them.

She leapt onto the back of the Indominus, and started stabbing at her with the shock-stick. Maybe it wasn't lethal, but if she could find an Achilles heel to keep her in enough pain, maybe they could kill the Indominus. She kept holding on as Delta was thrown to the ground.

She started climbing for the head, closing her eyes as she lifted the shock-stick over her head. She'd aimed for the eye, but missed by a long shot. Instead, she had lost her footing and was hanging off of a foot-ridge right next to the eye.

Indominus whipped her head, causing Lex to almost drop her shock-stick. She kicked the scales of the Indominus, and tried to gain momentum. Lex then swung herself back up, only for Echo and Charlie to be flung into an inferno in one of the shops across the street.

The Indominus' tail then swiped through the amber Owen was sniping behind, causing Lex to tumble down the tail of the I-Rex and fall to the ground. Owen helped her up and over the barrier where Zach and Gray were hiding as Claire ran. They were still for a moment, then scrambled to the back of the shop screaming as Indominus snapped at them.

For horrible minutes, they waited and screamed, wondering what happened to Claire, right when there were footsteps that rattled the ground. When there was a sizzle of a flare. The Indominus turned as the T-Rex roared. Lex released big, gasping breaths as she watched Claire dive to the ground as a spinosaurus skeleton was shattered by the T-Rex.

Lex leapt to her feet to see Claire crawling as the two giant dinosaurs clashed with fury for dominance of Isla Nublar. Owen quickly pushed them out of the way as the dinosaurs barreled their heads through the gift shop.

"RUN!" Claire screamed.

"No! No!" Owen cried. They ran over to Claire and watched. Rexy was losing, and there seemed to be no escape. Then, almost as if back from the dead, Blue ran in to save the day. Claire, Owen, Zach, Gray, and Lex ran into the shop, only stopping when Blue ran in front of the, and then again to watch as the Mososaur dragged the Indominus into its tank.

Lex breathed a sigh of relief and squeezed Zach's hand again.

" _Are we cool_?" Blue asked Rexy. Rexy roared back, then walked away. Claire let out a huge sigh of relief and began to push the kids towards the exit, where Lowry was waiting. Lex could finally feel the adrenaline ebbing away, exhaustion sweeping through.

She sat down in the chopper that Lowry had called, on Zach's left while Gray was on his right. She laid her head on her shoulder and fell asleep as they flew back to Costa Rica.


	16. Airport

They landed in the emergency center around 2:00 in the morning. Lex was ushered into the large room full of bleeding, busy people trying to save lives. Lex looked around, hoping that Carlisle was one of them. She settled for sitting down next to the boys and accepted one of the blankets that were given to them. She glanced over at Zach and smiled as Gray leaned against him and fell asleep again.

"I bet both our families will be here to pick us up by sunrise," Lex said quietly. "If I never see this island again, it'll be too soon."

"Same," Zach agreed, looking at his grimy sneakers, then back at Lex. "I can see how you really would love to forget about this place, with y'know-the raptor thing."

"I'm going to have to talk to my family about some things," Lex said. "I guess I can't really trust them, especially for all that Carlisle likes to berate InGen, he's continuing it. And other stuff, too."

"Hey," Zach said. "I get it. Family can suck sometimes."

"Well, your aunt and brother are pretty cool," Lex said. "You're not too bad yourself."

"Hey!"

Lex snorted, then looked down to her muddy sneakers. The soles were almost worn through from all the fast running- equivalent to the speed of a truck. She'd have to get new, better-supporting shoes, especially with the running she'd be doing in the future.

She gave her head a little shake to wake herself up, sort of, from her train of thought. She looked back at Zach. It would be a while before her family would show up, right?

Lex pulled a pen out of her backpack and turned back to Zach. "Care to give me your number-or your mom's?"

"Only if you give me mine," he replied with a small smile. She grinned and handed him a pen and held out her forearm. He scribbled messy numbers down her forearm, and she returned the favor rather dorkishly.

* * *

"Alexis!"

Lex awoke quickly from atop the cot the three kids had been sitting on, and spotted Claire walking back towards them, looking hassled and in a professional mood. Lex quickly slung her backpack on her shoulder and walked over to Claire.

"Your family is here to pick you up," Claire explained as she ushered Lex towards the Cullens. Bella immediately ran forwards and enveloped Lex in a crushing hug-literally.

"Mom!" Lex hissed, causing Bella to let go, ashamed of her lack of control. Bella then turned to Claire, who was feeling nervous and afraid from Jasper's gift.

"I'll be calling my lawyers on you for letting this happen," Bella snarled.

"Mom!" Lex cried, outraged. "Cla- Ms. Dearing is the only reason we're all still alive. Besides, Carlisle's the CEO now, not her. Get mad at him."

"That's different," Bella insisted.

"No, it's not," Lex said, bristling. "It's not her fault I went missing, that's mine! It's not her fault that I got used as a weapon for InGen, believe me, the honor all belongs to Vic Hoskins, and I can't say that since he's dead now! Please don't sue Ms. Dearing. None of this is her fault!"

"We'll talk later," Bella said, after seeing Claire briefly smile at the defense, breaking free of Jasper's power. "Come on, let's go home."

Lex reluctantly nodded, and she walked away, never looking back once.


	17. Epilogue

Six months later. . .

Lex stomped through the doorway, ignoring remarks from Nessie, Bella, Edward, and Jake. She ran to her room and slammed the door behind her. She twisted the door locked angrily and slid down the door sobbing while her hand fumbled for her cellphone.

Directly after the Jurassic World catastrophe (referred as just 'the Catastrophe' amongst the other Cullens, who chuckled about how humans would get over it in time) the Cullens hadn't gotten sued a bit, although InGen and Masarani Co. were. That wasn't keeping either company that down, though. Carlisle swore that he was working with Dr. Wu on a project with both companies that would restore them to their former glory. Lex couldn't care less about what InGen did now.

Lex, true to her word, called Zach until they both got new cellphones, and then they continued to text each other. It was often reports of traumas the other had suffered, although Zach was often speaking for himself and Gray. She listened, and sometimes came up with solutions around everyday occurrences that might trigger them.

It had been difficult to return to ordinary life. People just assumed she started wearing cat-eye contacts for a while. Until the park footage after dark had been released, revealing her communicating with the raptors and taking out the Indominus. She remembered walking into school shaking after that report had been released.

* * *

Every footstep of her Mizunos seemed to echo as she struggled not to vomit with fear. She looked down at the floor, shoulders hunched, her hair hanging over her face, her hands squeezing the ball her therapist had given her so hard she thought she was going to pop it. _My third one this month,_ she thought as she tried to tone it back a bit.

She made it into homeroom and had just taken out Dr. Ian Malcolm's latest book when Cameron Andersen and his group of friends walked up to her desk.

"So you speak raptor, huh?" he'd asked.

"Yeah," Lex said so quietly she was sure he didn't hear it.

"That was really cool though, you fighting that big dinosaur," he said with a grin. "You should tell us about that some time. Some of us were going to the rolling rink tonight. Wanna come?"

"I'm actually not that comfortable talking about it," Lex corrected in as polite of a voice as she could manage as she tried not to hear the roar of the Indominus and the waterfall roaring together, tried not to look to the ceiling for pteranodons.

"That's okay," Cameron said. "The offer still stands."

"Sure, I'll go," Lex had said, a big grin spreading across her face.

* * *

She knew she'd been lucky to be accepted. That she now had more friends. She entered the passcode to her phone and quickly typed a text to Zach.

 _Another reporter came up to me in the school parking lot today._

She breathed easy once it was sent. She hated it when the reporters tried to talk to her about it. Whenever they asked their questions, she was staring up at the Indominus again, trying to talk it down to save lives but miserably failing. She felt the jungle humidity and heat, her pulse raced, and her breathing became heavier. She felt the need to run again, run as fast as she could, run straight home without stopping.

There came a knock on her bedroom door.

"Sweetie, what happened?" Bella asked though the door.

"I don't want to talk about it!" Lex shouted angrily. "Go away!"

"I just want to talk," Bella said in a sobbing voice.

Lex felt a stab of guilt, but her anger rose above it, along with a dark satisfaction with hurting her.

She reluctantly got to her feet and opened the door.

"Please, talk to us," Bella pleaded. "We want to know what's going on. I thought you were getting better!"

"I am," Lex said coolly. "That doesn't mean that I don't still get triggered."

"Was it another reporter?" Bella asked.

"Yes!" Lex snapped.

"Sweetie, you know they just want-"

"I don't care what they want!" Lex shouted. "You'd think they'd know better than to trigger a MINOR! Besides, they could just ask Carlisle if they wanted details, couldn't they?"

"That's not fair," Bella said, her ghostly face turning ugly. "Carlisle's doing what's best for all of us!"

"By making more Indominus Rexes?" Lex demanded. "And selling those things to the military? Yeah, it's the best for our paycheck. But think of how many more people are going to die because of us!"

"It's a matter of war!" Bella cried.

"Doesn't make it right!" Lex cried right back. Her phone chimed, distracting her briefly. "Now if you're done defending Carlisle, I've got a text to reply to."

"Oh no you don't!"

Bella tugged on Lex's arm, making her stop and whip around.

"I just want my daughter back," Bella said. "You've been so different. You don't talk to us anymore and you're out all the time."

"That's because I have friends," Lex insisted. "You wanted me for years to get out more-well now I do. I'm finally living! Unlike you, I'm going to die someday. Well, I've finally realized with InGen around, that might not be long."

"We might not be around that long either," Bella said quietly. "Not since we found out dinosaurs are serious threats to the vampiric race. Remember all the Volturi that got killed?"

Lex felt a lurch of guilt, remembering Jane, only for her trusty anger to surge back again. She remembered when the Volturi had come for her because they thought she was too dangerous, being part raptor. They'd fought for her like they had Nessie, but she was done hanging around vamps. They might be her family, but they weren't there for her on the island. Zach's was.

"No thanks to Carlisle," Lex said quietly. She turned around and closed the door behind her. She opened her phone to see a response from Zach.

 _That sucks. Want to Skype tonight?_

Lex found herself smiling.

 _Sure._

They'd begun long-distance kinda-dating a few months before. Just a small thing, playing video games together, skyping, and planning for if they would ever be in the same town.

They weren't exactly the type of people you imagined being date friends. Her becoming a bit of a bubbly socialite, him becoming more reclusive and withdrawn. But they made it work. Besides, it was just a whatever type thing.

Lex looked up at the mirror on her wall and eyed herself. Her raptor eyes would not define her. She was never going to obey her 65 million year old instincts. She wasn't okay, but she would be someday.

Lex pocketed her phone, put on some jeans and a tank top, laced up her Mizunos, and began to run outside, finally feeling free.


End file.
